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Supervisors

  Victor Corpuz, B.A. M.B.A., Director of Operations

Mr. Corpuz oversees many different parts of our lab.  He is responsible for much of our administrative activities while also managing parts of the labratory.  He works hard to insure that the ITL continues it's record of quality and speed in transplantation diagnostics.

  Kelly Cunniffe, C.H.S., M.T., A.S.C.P., Laboratory Supervisor

Mrs. Cunniffe is an expert in histocompatibility testing and laboratory supervision. She has over 24 years experience in histocompatibility and immunogenetics, including over 11 years of supervisory experience. Ms. Cunniffe is responsible for both oversight of clinical testing and the QC program.

  Denice Kong, B.S., C.H.T., BMT Specialist

Mrs. Kong has performed and supervised high resolution typing for more than eight years. She is an expert in performing HLA typing of extremely difficult samples (e.g., plasma, serum, cells on slides, and tissue in paraffin blocks). Her accomplishments include development of novel methods of HLA typing using kinetic PCR, which are used for typing situations that require detection of low copy number or quantification.

 

Administrative Staff

  Ana Endrawos

 

  Steve Meyer, Financial Analyst

Clinical Laboratory Scientists

  Julia Bavely, B.A., C.H.S.

Ms. Bavely performs HLA typing by numerous molecular techniques and works to in serology on crossmatching assays. Her responsibilities also extend to clean-room management, everything from inventory to sterility testing.

  Young Cho, C.H.T

  Owen Buenaventura, B.S., C.H.T.

Mr. Buenaventura has more than nine years of experience in histocompatibility testing in ITL-UCSF. He performs SSO/SSP HLA typing, antibody screening and Cylex immunoassay in addition to other histocompatibility tests.

  Charlyn Dames, B.S., C.H.T

Miss Dames has worked at UCSF since graduating from UC Davis in 2006. She has three years of experience in histocompatibility testing and specializes in HLA-typing for bone marrow transplantation. She recently completed the CLS training program in 2009 and is now a licensed technician.

  Thea Dela Cruz, B.S., C.H.T

Ms. Cruz has been performing HLA typing for approximately two years. She is currently enrolled in the laboratory's training program for clinical histocompatibility scientists.

  Jack Lai, B.A., C.H.T.

Mr. Lai graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Molecular Cell Biology with Biochemistry emphasis in 2002. He reviews clinical work and performs Chimerism Short Tandem Repeat (STR), Sequencing Based Typing (SBT), Sequence Specific Primer (SSP), Sequence Specific Oligonucleotide (SSO), Cylex Immune Function Test, and other HLA related techniques on a routine basis. He has more than seven years of experience in histocompatibility testing.

  Victor Lim, B.A., C.H.S.

Mr. Lim is a veteran clinical lab scientist with over 30 years of experience in a wide variety of histocompatibility testing in cellular, serological, and molecular areas of the lab. He has both published papers in the field and developed assays for the lab.

  Loan Nguyen, B.S., C.H.T.

Ms. Nguyen performs molecular typing and antibody screening.  She works on deceased donor screening programs in addition to other histocompatibility tests. She has more than ten years of experience in histocompatibility testing.

  Pauline Hsu, B.A., C.H.S.

Ms. Hsu manages ITL's side of the deceased donor transplant program. In her spare time she also does HLA typing by molecular methods and serology T & B crossmatching

  Kenneth Plamenco, M.D., C.H.S.

Mr. Plamenco performs SSP typing in addition to other histocompatibility tests. He has more than seven years of experience in histocompatibility testing.

  Wenqin Sun, M.S., C.H.S.

Ms. Sun performs Chimerism testing by STR in addition to other histocompatibility tests. Ms. Sun has approximately 17 years experience in histocompatibility testing.

  Cassie Wu, B.A., C.H.T.

Ms. Wu currently performs primarily antibody screening and Cylex ImmunoKnow assay in addition to other histocompatibility tests. She has been working at the UCSF ITL since September 2005. During her first year she was part of our histocompatibility training program. Since she got her license, she has been doing crossmatch, SSO/SSP typing, chimerism testing, cell purity check and so on. Besides work, she enjoys taking outdoor photographs in her free time, she is also interested in flower arranging.

Hospital Laboratory Technicians

  Vincent Alarilla, M.D., CPT-1

Mr. Alarilla mainly handles sample accessioning, processing, and inventory. He is currently in the ITL's Clinical Histocompatibility Scientist training program.

  Amanda Che, B.S.

Ms. Che performs PBMC subset isolation, and DNA extraction for STR chimerism testing.

  Sam Dokko, B.S.

Mr. Dokko has performed HLA typing by SBT and SSP for the past two years. Most of his work is focused on projects from the National Marrow Donor Program, Immune Tolerance Network, and AERAS Global TB Vaccine Foundation. Additionally, he is responsible for cDNA cloning of novel HLA alleles.

  Winston Dy, B.A., CPT-1

Mr. Dy is responsible for sample log-in, answering inquiries regarding results and patient records, inventory ordering, serum preparation, laboratory maintenance, and administrative duties.

  David Edelshtein, B.A.

Mr. Edelshtein performs various tasks related to quality assurance including reviews of raw data and analyzed data of single antigen assays. Having completed three years of medical college MD program, Mr. Edelshtein reviews certain clinical records to extract information needed for research or for post-transplant monitoring reports.

  Nancy Lee, B.S.

Ms. Lee has performs HLA typing by SBT and SSP focusing on projects from the National Marrow Donor Program, Immune Tolerance Network, and AERAS Global TB Vaccine Foundation. Additionally, she is responsible for cDNA cloning of novel HLA alleles.

  Marvin Miranda. B.S.

Mr. Miranda has various HLT duties including sample log-in and administrative duties.

  Rosalie Morgan, B.S.

Ms. Morgan keeps the lab running quickly and efficiently.  She helps keep our patient data up to date and tracks the many variables we use to hold our lab to the highest standard of quality.

  Raffy Ortiz, B.S.

Mr. Ortiz performs PBMC subset isolation, and DNA extraction for STR chimerism testing. He is responsible for the weekly inventory and ordering of supplies in the clean room.

  Trish Whitney, Hospital Laboratory Technologist

  Esther Wu, B.A.

Ms. Wu performs PBMC subset isolation and DNA extraction for STR chimerism testing. She manages the STR reagents inventory as well as STR reagent QC.

Staff Research Associates

 Christian Larsen, B.S.

Mr. Larsen's work increases our HLA typing speed and accuracy by combining novel real-time PCR techniques with current sequence specific primer methodology.

Phillip Summers, B.S.

Mr. Summers' research centers around biomarkers for transplant rejection and inflamation in patients that are at risk for graft rejection.  Further work includes examining and removing confounding factors in our antibody screening assays.

  Nancy Tcheou, B.S.

Ms. Tcheou works to develop the ITL's MICA/B typing and antibody screening program. Her work also includes integrating our QC procedures with the latest wireless monitoring technology.

  Aaron Whiteley, B.S.

Mr. Whiteley's research focuses on donor specific antibody detection using flow cytometry to better understand the relationship between the virtual crossmatch and current cellular techniques. His work includes examining different B-cell sub-populations, antibody quantification techniques, and other novel contributing factors to the flow cytometry crossmatch.